After our interesting adventure at the Bolivian border it was really nice to actually come to a more modern city Calama, Chile. It's funny all you do is drive a few hours through the desert and you come to the complete opposite of the city you were originally in. While Uyuni temperatures were below freezing and a hostal costed you no more than a few American dollars, Calama was warm and welcoming and a bus trip costed you more than five nights in a Bolivian hostal. Still we welcomed the change. From Calama we boarded an extravagent bus to Iquique. We heard from our Chilean friends Egardo and Pedro that this coastal city was the place to be.
We got to Iquique at about 4am, not the best place to be at that time especially when you don't have a hostal booked. We ended up going to a run down hostal where all we wanted was a hot shower and a clean bed. It looked nice enough from the outside and we were promised hot water. I was so tired, I failed to actually check the tap which turned out to be a huge mistake. NO hot water to speak of. We were annoyed and really just wanted a decent place to stay for a change so we left the hostal at around 5:30am and found a random taxi with not one but two people in the car. This was something that the Lonely Planet guide said to stay away from, but we were desperate to get a place to stay so we hopped in, and I told Mark to be prepared for the worst. We ended up visiting between 5 and 6 hostals before we could find something with vacancy. Finally we found a great place about fifteen minutes walk from the shore, it was clean - minus the cockroaches in the bathroom which fled when you turned the lights on so really who cared right??
The next day after a nice, well deserved sleep we went for a walk that took us all around town. We walked through the local neighbourhood and found our way to the beach. While at the shipyard, we came upon a dozen wild sealions that came right up on the dock to sunbathe. How amazing! We stood there awhile admiring them from only a few feet away, snapping pictures all the while. I've never been so close to these animals, and it was an unexpected surprise. Our beachfront walk was great, relaxing, and needed. We ended up grabbing dinner at a local restaurant, and had one of the best fresh seafood meals we have had in South America.
After Iquique we spend just a few hours in Arica, a small city in northern Chile before heading back to Tacna, Peru. Yet another border crossing.. YIKES. We ended up paying a taxi a few soles and we were packed into a Ford Taurus with three locals plus the driver and driven across the border. It was sketchy, but much faster than a bus, and much cheaper. From Tacna we ended up bording another bus to Arequipa as fast as we could. At that time, we were running out of time, and we really wanted to do the Colca Canyon trek just outside of Arequipa.
AREQUIPA!! This city is glorious! It is surrounded by three volcanoes, all inactive. Many of the buildings are made of the volcanic rock, which is white in colour. This is why the city is actually known as the "white city". It actually reminded me a lot of Cusco, but WAY more modernized. The main square was breath taking. It housed one of the largest churches in South America. The church spanned the entire length of the plaza, and was made of the white stone. At night, the plaza de Armas was even more beautiful. This was the place to be, always packed with a mix of pigeons, merchants, locals and a tourists. Again we found ourselves getting into the city in the wee hours of the morning, so we paid a taxi driver to drive us around looking for hostals. We've lucked out with taxi drivers thus far, always getting the ones that want to help us as much as possible, and not steal our things. We ended up at Hostal Verona. A cheap place with luke warm water, no toilet paper, a barely there lock on the door and friendly staff. It was a block from the plaza and it was our new home. We spent two days in Arequipa before heading out to the Colca Canyon, which I will get to. We visited the markets, antique stores, museums, restaurants and more. The museum santuary, which held "Juanita, the ice princess" was well worth the 15 soles admission. We received an english guide, a twenty minute video of the findings of the three child sacrifices and lots of artifacts, finishing with the actual body of "Juanita", a 12 or 13 year old girl who was brought up a mountain, poisoned, and killed by a blow to the head as a sacrifice to the gods by ancient Inca people. In later times, due to avalanches her body rolled down the mountain and was discovered unknowingly. This history was amazing, and our guide was well educated in most of the findings and could answer all of our questions.
THE COLCA CANYON. Well, let me just say I was in no way, shape or form ready for this trek. I figured it would be fairly leisurely with fifteen minute breaks every couple of hours. NOPE. We started out on flat ground for the first ten minutes, but from then on in it was tedious, back breaking terrain. Mark and I decided to bring about 50 pounds of gear with us, and I just about died. We walked 15 km the first day.... THE FIRST DAY. Don't get me wrong, the scenery was beautiful, with mountains on every side of you - we were literally in a canyon. Actually the Colca Canyon is the second deepest canyon in the world. Deeper than the Grand Canyon. Pretty amazing to say at least I've trekked it up and down. Three quarters of the way in, my muscles were ceasing up and I was almost in tears from the pain. I was carrying a giant backpack which I had to give to Mark every now and again because it was digging into my shoulders and the weight of it was making my knees buckle. We were so bogged down by weight that we couldn't even keep up with the rest of the group, who were wearing daypacks if not less. DAMN IT. We ended up at the oasis - greatly needed. This place was amazing. It was a small patch of green, lush land in the middle of the canyon. Our room was made of palm leaves and bamboo, and was only lit by candle light. We got to take a cold shower here and use a bathroom - in the dark, or by the light of Mark's ipod. We crashed down on the bed, and we both groaned for a good 15 minutes before peeling ourselves up and getting some grub. The next day, we had another four hours of walking... ALL UPHILL. Not only that, but we started at 5am with no breakfast until we reached the top. I thought I might die. The good thing was that we rented a mule to carry our bigger backpack, so we just had one to carry and Mark offered to carry it. Ten minutes in, my calves were burning and all the pain from the day before was creeping up on me. I was supposed to be enjoying this but it was just torture to know that I had four hours of this to go. Over half way through I saw my mule coming up the mountain with my backpack.... hmmmmmmm. That's it, I hopped on a mule and rode the last hour up. I just couldn't cut it. Mark was left behind to trek by his lonesome, but part of me believes that he was happy not to hear me moan and groan and be miserable for another hour. Although, the mule was probably worse than walking, especially mine who liked to hover so close to the edge I thought he wanted to end his life and mine. Finally, we finished... I couldn't have been happier. Oh wait, our guide says we have to walk another half an hour to get to breakfast. So we aren't finished???? AAAHHHHHH!
The good thing was that on the way back to the city Arequipa we stopped off to eat fresh fruit, and to take a dip in some hot springs which was really soothing on the muscles and I really needed to get the grit, sweat and mule hair off of my body and clothes. All in all, this trek was better when it was done and over with, but quite the experience especially when I looked back at the pictures.
Our reward for Colca Canyon was Mancora, which was an 8 hour bus to Lima and then a 17 hour bus north from Lima. We ended up staying the night in Lima before heading out again. Lima is a huge city, and not somewhere I would want to spend too much time. But then again, I'm more of a small city/town person, I don't so much like the bigger cities.
Finally we arrived in Mancora, just south of the Ecuadorian border. The weather here ranges from 25 - 35 degrees celsius from morning to night. It is truly a beach town. Lazy surfers are everywhere, markets selling hand made crafts are on a strip in the town, you can hear the ocean from wherever you are, the people are friendly, happy and are worry free. We REALLY needed this, and it is making a fantastic end to our trip. We found a great little resort with 8 rooms total. It has a little pool, about 5 little hideaway places to relax and is right on the ocean. We were about to take money out to pay for our little getaway when... OH MY GOD. We realized that we left our travel safe in the hotel room in Lima. That means our passports, visa's, debit cards, plane tickets, health insurance.. EVERYTHING that matters was not with us. Actually it was more than 1200 km's away from us. After our brief panic attack, we called the hotel and the gentleman there said he had found our bag strapped to the bed. We are planning on heading back to Lima for our flight on the 1st, so we are to apparently pick up our belongings on the morning we fly out.... but for now, we can't do anything about the situation. We are fortunate to have one debit card with us which is keeping us afloat and we are living it up while we can worry free. There's really no point in stressing out now, only when we get to Lima in a few days....
WISH US LUCK.
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